Complications of Circumcision

In fact the commandment for circumcision has not been prescribed with a view to perfecting what is defective congenitally, but to perfecting what is defective morally. The bodily pain caused to that member is the real purpose of circumcision. Moses Maimonides

The most commonly reported problems of circumcision are pain and blood loss. Accordingly, the local, transient and obvious effects of circumcision are the main concerns of the circumcision physicians. They look for ways to alleviate the patients’ pain and sufferings accompanying the operation. They want to make circumcision run as smoothly as a natural process. Obviously, they are full of good intentions as far as operation and its immediate problems are concerned. But they say nothing about the enduring effects of the erogenous deficit and emotional distress that circumcision is intended to cause. Intentionally or due to ignorance, by rendering circumcision painless physicians trick the potential patients into paying for suffering the long-term effects of the practice.

Circumcision is a courageous act that removes the most sensitive feminine part of the penis. It desensitizes and masculinizes men so they must be proud of it. Circumcision always leaves a scar but what man is the one without a scar? Besides, unhealed scars may offer more or less sharp pain-like sensations that may diversify sexual experience. Yet the penile adhesions and skin-bridges between the remaining foreskin and the glans that occur in about 15% of circumcisions really make penises unique.[i]

Complications primarily associated with circumcision are inflammation (meatitis) and constriction or narrowing (meatal stenosis) of the urethral opening of the penis.[ii][iii][iv]Phimosis against which circumcision is often recommended is actually a complication of circumcision. The situation is simpler with the post-circumcision carcinoma of the penis as it is clearly among the complications that are unique to circumcision. Other complications mentioned to occur infrequently are urinary retention, urinary tract infections, concealed (buried) penis, painful erection, urinary fistulas, cysts, lymphedema, ulceration of the glans, necrosis of all or part of the penis, hypospadias, erectile dysfunction and impotence. You can find more of them on the internet.[v][vi] All of these ill effects of circumcision are presented as caused by improper medical procedures, which seemingly dissociates them from circumcision.

The dissociation is very humane as it diverts the attention of the distressed away from their problem and redirects it toward more remediable factors such as surgeons’ expertise. In the end everybody knows that doctors may be self-proclaimed, but not circumcision. According to this logic neither doctors nor their action can compromise the ancient practice. The bad doctors no less contribute to the welfare of the circumcision than the good ones. In practice the immediate complications of circumcision increase its value. As well as the price of the operation, of course. The incompetence of both surgeons and patients dignifies the medical profession. And the complications of circumcision pay off with new more expensive operations.

Some impious researchers claim that more than 100 boys die annually in the United States as a result of circumcision. So we might expect that the global toll is much heavier. However, God moves in a mysterious way and the victims of circumcision may be an important part of His plan. It is immoral and ungodly to comment these innocent deaths. We beg your excuses for mentioning them at all.[vii]